Look back 500 years, 400 years, 100 years, even 50 years and you will see examples of world class, creative geniuses everywhere. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Martin Luther, Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Bach, Mozart, Benjamin Franklin, Madame Currie, Dostoyevsky, Nicola Tesla, Beethoven … The list goes on and on. Geniuses in every field of human endeavor, whose works changed the world, whose names will live forever.
But what will people 100 years from now or even 50 years from now see when they look back at our time? Where is our Beethoven?
We are pretty much at the peak of civilization – certainly as far as technology goes. The average idiot walks down the street carrying a device that connects to all the information in the world. We have the ability to communicate, instantly, with people everywhere, anytime. Someone in Tennessee has no problem talking to someone in Timbuktu. And not just talk – they can see each other on screen, send each other documents, conference with dozens of other people around the world at the same time – they can even hop a plane and meet in person in just a few hours. Imagine if Shakespeare could have done that.
There is also more wealth in the world, today, then at any other time in history. And, in terms of percentage of the population, there are fewer people in poverty than ever before.
It’s a golden age for many – or at least it should be – but there is something missing.
We haven’t had a real technological breakthrough since the Moon landing more than 50 years ago. “Art” has literally degenerated to someone throwing excrement at a canvas and framing it. Music, film and television is created by committees and focus groups. Authors are more concerned with the number of pronouns and acronyms they can use than in the story. And “educators” appear to base their curricula on insect or reptilian logic.
The flame of the World Soul is being extinguished.
In the past, creative people struggled to find information, patrons and audiences – how much could Van Gogh, Mozart, Tesla and others have benefited from the Internet? Current technology has solved many problems that hindered creators of the past. We also have excessive amounts of leisure and levels of comfort only the very rich could afford not too long ago.
And yet…
Where is our Beethoven? Our Shakespeare? Our Newton? Our Rembrandt? Our Einstein? Hell, where’s our Elvis?
It seems the fulfilment of needs such as information and leisure does not contribute to greatness. What powers genius is a connection to Spirit – and that is something technology can’t seem to give us.
Instead of a new Axial Ages or a new Renaissance the 21st century is a new Dark Age full of propaganda, conflict, pestilence and the Death of the human Spirit.
Where’s Beethoven?
By Michael A. Michail
On January 10, 2022
In Social Commentary
Look back 500 years, 400 years, 100 years, even 50 years and you will see examples of world class, creative geniuses everywhere. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Martin Luther, Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Bach, Mozart, Benjamin Franklin, Madame Currie, Dostoyevsky, Nicola Tesla, Beethoven … The list goes on and on. Geniuses in every field of human endeavor, whose works changed the world, whose names will live forever.
But what will people 100 years from now or even 50 years from now see when they look back at our time? Where is our Beethoven?
We are pretty much at the peak of civilization – certainly as far as technology goes. The average idiot walks down the street carrying a device that connects to all the information in the world. We have the ability to communicate, instantly, with people everywhere, anytime. Someone in Tennessee has no problem talking to someone in Timbuktu. And not just talk – they can see each other on screen, send each other documents, conference with dozens of other people around the world at the same time – they can even hop a plane and meet in person in just a few hours. Imagine if Shakespeare could have done that.
There is also more wealth in the world, today, then at any other time in history. And, in terms of percentage of the population, there are fewer people in poverty than ever before.
It’s a golden age for many – or at least it should be – but there is something missing.
We haven’t had a real technological breakthrough since the Moon landing more than 50 years ago. “Art” has literally degenerated to someone throwing excrement at a canvas and framing it. Music, film and television is created by committees and focus groups. Authors are more concerned with the number of pronouns and acronyms they can use than in the story. And “educators” appear to base their curricula on insect or reptilian logic.
The flame of the World Soul is being extinguished.
In the past, creative people struggled to find information, patrons and audiences – how much could Van Gogh, Mozart, Tesla and others have benefited from the Internet? Current technology has solved many problems that hindered creators of the past. We also have excessive amounts of leisure and levels of comfort only the very rich could afford not too long ago.
And yet…
Where is our Beethoven? Our Shakespeare? Our Newton? Our Rembrandt? Our Einstein? Hell, where’s our Elvis?
It seems the fulfilment of needs such as information and leisure does not contribute to greatness. What powers genius is a connection to Spirit – and that is something technology can’t seem to give us.
Instead of a new Axial Ages or a new Renaissance the 21st century is a new Dark Age full of propaganda, conflict, pestilence and the Death of the human Spirit.
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